The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-03-30
HIS LAST SERMON.
LAST PULPIT WORDS Or REV.
HENRY WARD BEECHER.

Delivered in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn,
on sunday Evening, Feb. 2s-Resolution
and the Necessity of Living up to Fixed
Standards.
@And he said unto his disciples: There was
a certain rich MAJ which had a servant, and
the same was accused unto him No
servant can sserve two masters, for either be
VIII hate the one and love the other, or else
he viii hold to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and Mammon.n
Text-Luke, xvi, 4, the first clause: Il am
resolved what 10 do"
l read in your hearing this narrative, this
parable of our Lord. The unjust steward had
been accused, and rightfully. of betraying
his trust and wasting that committed 20 him,
His master called him to an account, and he
was satisfied that the end had come, and he
communed with himself, and as the result of
that, and looking over all the circumstances,
he said, Il am resolved what TO do"
What he resolved to do was not very honest.
but it was very shrewd. He resolved to make
friends of all the debtors Of his lord He
called them up and settled with them I'm such
a way as to lay them under obligations
gratitude TO him. And so, although he and
they cheated the master he made his own
nest warm and the master praised him-not
Jesus, but the man that owned the property
is the one. When he heard that he said to
himself: "Well, that is shrewd; that is cum
ming; that is WISE" and the comment ON it is:
Children of this world are wiser than the
children of lghts that is to say, men who are
acting In worldly reasons, for worldly reasons,
are very much wiser than the men becoming
good from the highest moral considerations.
But that that they have selected is simply
this: Il am resolved what to do"
What then is the nature of resolution
what is the scope of it, the potency And what
are the drawbacksg The self-consderation of
these questions may throw light upon the path of
our mind is equivalent to forming a purpose.
When a man resolves he means, or should mean,
TO do something; and all resolutions carry, or
should carry, not simply the end sought but also
the capable and necessary means by which the
end Is sought. ! am resolved TO cross that river,
by the bridge. by boat or by swimming. To
stand on one side and TO resolve 10 be on the
other without any intermediate means of doing
it, would be folly indeed am resolved to-mor-
row to go to market. All the intermediate and
implied steps by which that resolution could be
carried out are included in the resolution itself
A resolution is purpose in so far as simple
things, uncompounded, incomplete, are CON
cerned. resolution may be executed immedi
ately, without loss of time; indeed, the greatest
number of resolutions are those which, like the
stroke of the hammer or the explosion of the
gun, are almost without any appreciable inter
lapse of time. Il resolved what to do
Natural resolutions: At the cry of fire the man
instantly looks out to what to do; at the call
of man to step to the door and see stranger or
q friend; he resolves TO do it; although the reso
luton is latent In such sense by repetition, he IS
not conscious of making up his mind,
Ia 70 of Of
mans life celebration-that is to say, the action
of the brain-has become so common that it takes
place without any appreciabe appearance of TAX
ing place. multitude of things-f one gets in
a crowd, and man would strike him, his defense
is not the result of reflection, and yet it in
him a result of experience to protect himself:
and if it be shadow, it is just the same, for a
shadow seems like a substance, and he puts him
self in ludicrous attitude of defense; he smiles,
and he goes on, but the action of the mind, the
unconscious cerebration. is there.
AS, for instance, in things that apply to the
now, that are incorporated and simple, man
resolves and executes almost at the same mo-
ment. The child calls from above Father y
and incidentally there is thought whether be
shall or shall not answer, yet the train goes on
without him and he replies. My son, whGtY" Or
the call has come to him for help, and he In
stantly before the last echo of the sound dies out
of his ear, is on his feet, on his way. But these
are very simple things; they the primary
forms, which afterward becoming more and
more complicated, running through longer
periods of time, imply great many intermediate
steps. For man resolve that he will go to
bed-it doesn't take long, either-he resolves that
tomorrow morning he will get up and go "cruis-
ing" but Tomorrow is dark and stormy, and the
resolution is not half so strong when he wakes up
as it was when he went to bed. There are a great
many considerations that come Or the man re-
solves that tomorrow he will go to market;
neighbors come in; he waits; it is noon, and then
time is too little to go. And come again" And
he puts it of until the next morning. So between
the resolution and the night-for one takes hold
upon the other-there is delay and the interme-
diate history
Now, as you go in life, as society itself be-
comes more eomplex-civilization is growth in
complexity-as the things that you resolve to do
or not to do are largely in their times and are
clustered together by cause and effect, resoiu.
tions spreading over so long spaces and SO much
ntermediatism is somewhat different from the
first resolve.
Resolution, then, means purpose. the will it
self; and it includes in it, also all indispensable
intermediate steps; and some resolutions execute
themselves Immediately; some with some delay:
some with long delay; some, through many subor-
dinate resolutions that carry out the primary
one. And man may resolve at a critical mo-
ment that which will determine the whole charac-
ter OF his life; yea, he may determine in any one
single, final moment that which will take the
WnOle OF MS lIe TO carry into erect This Is the
case of ten thousand men. When my father was
young, a lad the was brought up by, substantially
uncle), he had in him all that necessary to
make him what he was in his professional life
But he didn't do it: he was careless he was heed
less he was forgetful of things external; and SC
Uncle Lot Benton one morning, going out, found
that being cut late with the horses the night be
fore visiting some young company, the bride was
placed over the water trough and the saddle was
thrown down behind the stable door, and the
horses turned in without halter, and he said
''Oh WELL Lyman will never make farmer: he
is not fitted for it, And talking In the orchard
with him one day, he says: Lyman, how would
you like to go to college.r No answer They
went ON working all day Next day, about the
same hour, as they were working together in the
orchard, Lyman says: II would like TO 60 sir y
That settled it. In that beginning was purpos G
that shaped differently his whole life; it never
gave out; it branched in every direction; he
made what he was; that owing TO the part
ing; by not, he would have been miserable far.
mer; he made a tolerably good minister and a
tolerably good father.
So, then, man may form resolution without
noise, without parade, but that with Infinite Sc
quences in its development 1t may include In
itself short process and intermediate; it may
include in itself long process; it may include liz
itself the whole scope of a mans life and thrice
ten thousand resolutions Will be formed success
lively to carry out the great primary resolution
which man makes
The general qualities of the resolutions which
men make are OF every grade; even frail woman
walking in the boisterous March wind, may find
that with all the sail she carries she cannot make
Roadway against it, and supports herself by q
fence that is stiff enough 10 hold her until the
wind lus. And as il is in the community so it il
in regard TO OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES are many persons
who, left to themselves, waver; they do so some
times from good reasons, sometimes from thos<
not so good. sometimes because the purposes
in 1ffsfs adha
nothing left OF them when the excitement cools
There Is instability also arising from disability Of
organization; that is to say, a man may be sus
ceptihle while one class OF effects is being pro
duced, and in that mood he may form resofu
| ton, but tomorrow some other blessed beautiful
thing may come up, and he is Just as susceptible
Of that, and the secondary state OF mind obiit
music. and all his purposes run under that powel
or influence. but by and by, the outbreak of pol
itics brings up patriotism. as it Is called and BIZ
moods change, and those early sensations at frs
are no longer operative upon him: another pow
erful influence causes depression. There AR
many men who have such ancillary elements
brought to bear upon their wills and their tenn
| peramenfs that they are almost persuaded to b
| Christians, and think they win be, but goins
home in q hurry, fall i'm with company
/ and the day following business instincts
and interests It is like another scene that day
| So that there is this changeabieness in men
| Then the decrease OF the power came from thu
nature OF the mind. There is, however, this idez
| not to be ncgiected-the distinction between tbs
mans willing and his wishing. A great many
/ people think that q wish is q resolution Oh il
| has gone into proverb, II wishes were horses
/ then beggars might ride man wishes b
were rich, but he is too lazy, and he never viii be
| man wishes that he knew more: probably nevel
viii; he Is lazy, man wishes that he could have
entrances into certain circles In society. but tn